


Trick or Treat

by Siryn



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 17:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siryn/pseuds/Siryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never trust a Pike triplet on Halloween.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trick or Treat

Trick _or_ treat. Who was the genius who came up with the idea to give people an option, and especially to lead with the nastier of the two? She should have known it was too good to be true. She was fourteen years old for crying out loud! She knew her brothers better than anyone and still she fell for it when they convinced her to leave the trick-or-treaters to them. "Oh my lord," she groaned as she attempted to pry yet another piece of gum off the front door of the house. Her parents were going to kill her. 

Yes. _Her._ Because she, Mallory Pike, had listened to her brothers and gone ahead to Claudia's party even though her parents told her she couldn't.

"Your grades aren't what we know they should be," her father said gently.

"You're grounded," her mother said, a little less gently.

And so she was. The kicker was that she'd known it before she'd even come home for the weekend, but she'd still hoped that her parents would understand that her grades weren't slipping, she was just experiencing more out of Riverbend. Her grades were still good... if you squinted. Mallory sighed and blew her hair out of her eyes. Her grades could, and should, be better. But she was a freshman and she was enjoying school and she had an actual social life!

"No excuses," she told herself.

 

Still, she'd thought it was incredibly unfair of them to ground her, which is why she'd ignored the warning bells that had sounded even before the triplets offered to hold down the fort while she headed over to Claudia's for the party.

"We got it, Mal," Adam assured her.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Byron and Vanessa are taking the rest of the kids trick-or-treating and Adam and I will cover the door."

"Mom and Dad will never know," Byron added.

"We can do this," they pointed out in unison, which was more than a little creepy in retrospect.

So she'd gone ahead to the party and had an amazing time.

 

Right up until she'd come home and found the yard toilet-papered, the grass smeared with shaving cream, and chewing gum stuck to the door.

"What the heck happened?" Mallory demanded. Their parents might have gone away for the weekend (a point she was sure had worked against her in the being able to go to the party), but Mallory was pretty sure they'd notice the new redecorating scheme going on out front.

Adam and Jordan didn't even bother to look innocent. "We got bored," Adam said with a smirk.

"You got bored?"

"Well, they do say trick _or_ treat," Jordan pointed out.

"So you did this? Then you'd better get your butts outside and clean it up!" she yelled.

"No, _we_ didn't do it."

"Then who did?"

Adam shrugged. "I don't know. Probably one of the kids who didn't appreciate the candy tax."

"The what?" Mallory felt her blood beginning to boil.

"The candy tax. The kids who looked too old to be trick-or-treating and still said TRICK or treat got their candy taxed."

She noticed the candy wrappers at their feet, most of which were brands not found in the mixed bag of Halloween candy their mother bought every year."You stole their candy," she said, feeling her hands ball into fists. They'd set her up!

"We taxed it," Jordan corrected.

"You stole their candy so they wrecked our yard. Did you see what they did to the door?" she snapped.

"Yeah, I didn't see that one coming. I think Stacey's mom was giving out gum though, which would explain it," Adam said thoughtfully. "Oh, and we're not cleaning it up."

"You are."

Mallory felt her jaw drop. "Are you crazy?" she hissed. "There is no way I'm cleaning up the mess you guys caused!"

"Oh, I think you are," Adam said as he slowly unwrapped a 3 Musketeers bar, letting the wrapper fall to the couch to join countless others.

"And why would I do that?"

Mallory watched as her brothers adopted looks of concern that looked remarkably natural. "Mom, Dad, we tried to stop her, we swear!"

"But she gave all the candy to the first group of trick-or-treaters! All of it!"

"Then she said she was done, she was going to her party, and she left us. Byron and Vanessa were already gone and we had no candy and... We heard all this noise and this yelling."

"We didn't know what to do!"

"When she came home at 3am, say cheese, Mallory," Jordan said as he held up a camera and snapped her picture, "she told us we had to clean it up."

"We're so sorry." Angelic looks graced their faces and Mallory had to fight the urge to smack them. Not only had they set her up, now they had proof that she'd broken her punishment.

"Like they'd believe you guys," she said, making one last frantic attempt at salvaging the situation.

Adam and Jordan exchanged looks. "True," Jordan said slowly.

"But they'd believe _Byron_ ," Adam finished.

"And as far as he knows, that's the truth. Y'know, with the picture and all, I'd say you're pretty well screwed, Mal."

"Night!"

Then, before she could say a word or think about grabbing a camera of her own to photograph the evidence, the boys disappeared, taking their ill-gotten gains and trash with them.

 

Trick or treat.

"Ugh! How could I have been so stupid?" she muttered as she leaned against the only clean patch of the door. Seconds later she fell backwards as it opened. "WHAT?" she snapped at the triplet standing above her before realizing it was Byron.

He held out a hand and helped pull her up. "I was never here," he said softly before handing her his phone.

"What?" She was beyond confused.

He shut the door behind him and turned to face the damage. "You do realize that the gum is pulling the paint off the door, right?" he asked.

Mallory groaned. "Tell me about it."

"If you don't want to spend tomorrow repainting the door and everything else around her that needs an extra coat of paint, I'd suggest taking a look at the last video," he said quietly.

Mallory quickly found what he was talking about, but there was no picture. "It's black," she pointed out.

"Shh. Just listen."

And there, clear as day, were their brothers detailing their trick on Mallory. "I'd say you're pretty well screwed, Mal," she heard Jordan say again. She looked at Byron. "You recorded the whole thing?"

He smiled. "You'll remember this in December, right?"

She grinned. "Of course. Let me guess, no picture means I can say _I_ swiped your phone."

"I knew you'd catch on sooner or later. Trick or treat, Mallory."

**Author's Note:**

> Based very loosely on a couple of true stories. My brother did beg to hand out candy one year and then proceeded to not actually hand out candy and to taunt as many kids as he could and I did wake up to find the front door had been coated in gum.


End file.
